Abstract:
The Battle of Vijithapura fought between King Dutugemunu and King Elara is
documented in ancient chronicles of the country to be of irrefragable significance in the
Sri Lankan military history. Though the diverse literature sources reveal this battle, it has
not been analysed in a military angle. This was an exploratory type of pure research and it
was aligned with the naturalist research paradigm. Further, it has based on the secondary
data sources and the research approach acquiesces with the qualitative method. The scope
of this research was to analyse the attack phase of the Vijithapura Battle using the
present-day battle appreciation format of the Sri Lanka Army. In the battle stage, it can be
identified that the Vijithapura fortress was the strongest among the other 36 fortresses and
it was well secured by three moats and high walls. During the attack,
King Dutugemunu has considered many factors which are not having much recognition of
the present-day battle appreciation format. King Dutugemunu’s force has effectively used
the besiege tactics including encirclement, elephants to breach gates, and hunt down
escaping troops by using horses. As the next step, they have proceeded with a wellplanned siege warfare tactic to capture the Vijithapura fortress. For the planning purpose,
the spy service was used strategically to cluster information. In addition to that, assigning
tasks to Mahasona, Theraputtabhaya, and Gothaimbara (recorded in the history to be
among Ten Giants) to attack three entrances that were located around
the Vijithapura fortress can be identified as the tactic of “effective use of human skills”.
Besiege tactics, siege tactics, spy service and effective use of human skills are the lessons
learned from the Vijithapura battle and finest points to concern in empowering the
present-day battle appreciation format of Sri Lanka Army
Keywords: Ancient military tactics, Anuradhapura kingdom, Attack phase, Battle
appreciation format, Vijithapura battle
